Corrugated board profiles for packagings, at the end of the various working steps and before being palletized and afterwards shipped, can appear under the shape of moving stacks usually composed of 20.div.40 corrugated board sheets. Each one of these sheets can be composed of a plurality of elementary profiles, already die-cut into their final shape, but kept together by a plurality of junction points, these points having been obtained by suitably profiling the hollow punches when die-cutting. Since working is at the end, it is necessary in this step to separate the different stacks of elementary profiles one from the other, by breaking these junction points.
In order to carry out such splitting operation, two major types of splitting machines are known in the art. The first type is the object of document EP-A-0 404 909, that discloses a splitting machine for profiles provided with the following features: (a) the stacks of profiles to be splitted come to the splitting station and stop there; (b) the stacks are blocked between a pair of small presses; (c) splitting occurs through a breakage due to two following traction actions along the sheet advancement direction. This splitting machine needs several operating steps and the procedure is long, being because it is necessary to stop the advancing stacks, lock them, split them, unlock them and make them start again: this machine is therefore scarcely suitable for workings where a high production throughput per time unit is required.
The second type of splitting machine is commercially available from the Pallmac company and provides a hinged and rotating device that splits the stacks by exerting thereon a force from the top downwards while it is kept rotating. This splitting machine too, though needing a lower splitting pressure with respect to the previous one, requires an even longer operating time than the first machine, because it is necessary to stop the advancing stacks, lock them, rotate the splitting device, take back the device to a rest position, unlock the stacks and make them start again.
Moreover, all types of prior art splitting machines exert the splitting action on a single line that is perpendicular to the stack advancement direction; it is therefore impossible to separate stacks composed of profiles of a particular shape (for example "L"-shaped and "inverted L"-shaped) that are kept joined together for practical purposes and for production efficiency. For this reason, the stacks must be manually splitted at the end of all workings.